Kortlægning af kemiske stoffer i forbrugerprodukter, 60 – Kortlægning og sundhedsmæssig vurdering af kemisk stoffer i overfladebehandlet trælegetøj

Kortlægning og sundhedsmæssig vurdering af kemisk stoffer i overfladebehandlet trælegetøj

Summary and conclusions

As a part of the Danish Environmental Protection Agency's programme on survey of chemical substances in consumer products a project was initiated on a survey on which chemical substances were released (migrated) from surface treated (coated) wooden toys and an evaluation of the health risk.

The project "Migration and health assessment of chemical substances in surface treated wooden toys" is a continuation of a previous project where the consumption of natural toys including wooden toys was surveyed (Survey report no. 33).

The conclusion from the previous report was that the consumption of wooden toys was approx. 50 million DKK or 2.3% of the turnover of toys in Denmark. An update based on the same source indicates that the consumption has increased from approx. 370 tonnes in 2001 to approx. 420 tonnes of wooden toys in 2003.

According to the Directive on safety of toys, the manufacturer or the importer has the obligation to evaluate whether the toy is hazardous to children. It furthermore includes requirements in accordance to standards in force. The standard sets threshold limit values for the migration from all types of toys of eight heavy metals: antimony, arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury and selenium.

In the Toy Directive it is further noted that toys must not contain dangerous substances or preparations within the meaning of Directive 67/548/EEC and 88/379/EEC in amounts which may harm the health of children using them. Are such substances present, an evaluation should be performed to establish whether the amount migrating from the toys might cause harm to the health of the child.

This study therefore includes a migration analysis of selected surface coated wooden toys and a health evaluation of the identified substances. A focus has been on the metals mentioned in the Directive on toy safety and organic chemical substances classified in the Annex I to Directive 67/548/EEC (Dangerous substances).

Of the identified substances and based on classification and numbers a number of substances were selected for further evaluation of potential health risk to the consumer. In this case, consumers are defined as children aged 0 to 3 years.

Of the 125 identified substances 43 were classified in Annex I to Directive 67/548/EEC and further 16 could be self classified according the Guidance list on self classification from the Danish Environmental Protection Agency. Of the Annex I classified substances 2 were classified carcinogenic (Carc. cat. 3), 1 substance mutagenic (Mut. cat. 3), and 9 substances reproduction toxic (Repr. cat. 2-3). Besides, 5 substances were classified sensitising.

Despite the severe classification of a number of the identified substances, none of the substances was evaluated to present any immediate risk to the consumer (in this situation children mouthing the toy). The assessment is based on a child mouthing the toy for a maximum of 3 hours per day.

The assessments are mostly evaluated by comparison to data from subchronic or even chronic effect data. As the urge to put toys in the mouth is assumed to decline after a few years, the conclusions should be acceptable.

The conclusion from this study is, therefore, that none of the examined pieces of wooden toys are considered to be a health risk to children mouthing the toys.

It is noted that the evaluation does not consider that the exposure to individual substances is increased when several toys are played with at the same time. Besides other sources to the same substance may exist.